Alas, But to Fly on Broken Wings
by Miguela
Summary: Relena is being abused by her fiancé, and Heero finds out about it but is powerless to stop it. One-Shot (My first one too) Please R & R!


**_Alas, but to Fly on Broken Wings..._**

By Miguela

Heero stumbled blindly down the drive, barely managing to place one foot in front of the other as his blood poured out of his many wounds. He hadn't the faintest idea where his feet were leading him, the path he had taken was unfamiliar to him, but in his heart he knew that there would be comfort at the end of the long road. He was soaked from the torrential downpour of the rain, having walked God only knew how many miles in an amount of time that he wasn't keeping track of. His feet slid over the wet pavement, not having enough strength remaining to pick them up any longer.

Finally he came to a large manor where he knew comfort was waiting, though he was unsure if he would receive a warm welcome from the occupants. He stumbled up the front steps to the portico, nearly keeling over right into the door, which was bolted shut from the inside, though he didn't know that.

Inside, the girl who owned the manor where his feet had carried him was having some problems of her own. After Heero had left after the war, Relena had been heart broken and had desperately wanted some company. A young man who was a business associate of the young woman had offered her a dinner one night, which she had accepted, and fell in love with the young suitor. They had gotten engaged not long after and were soon to be wed, though there was one thing about the young man that had been overlooked on her part: when he has something to drink, he becomes abusive towards her. She wouldn't tell anyone of the beatings, not even her fiancé, who couldn't seem to remember what happened the night before when he was drunk. She would hide the bruises on her face with make-up and would wear long sleeves to hide the bruises on her arms. Those were the only two places where he liked to hit her. Another thing about him was that he was very obsessive. He would sometimes see the way other men looked at her and would become paranoid, thinking that they were going to steal her away from him. It had gotten so bad once that he wouldn't permit her to leave her room. This insistent paranoia had led to him moving in without her consent to keep an eye on her. He never did give her a reason for his actions.

Tonight, he was drunk again, and she had hidden in a coat closet on the main floor of the three-story manor, hoping that he would just enjoy breaking the furniture in the living room instead of trying to hunt her down in the large house. She believed that she still loved him, though she had to find a way to keep him from drinking so much. At around three in the morning he always seemed to pass out and sleep till late afternoon, and then she would hide his liquor, though he always went out the next night to buy more.

There was a short ring of the doorbell that could be heard faintly through the wood of the door to her hiding place. She was unsure if she should venture from her haven in the closet to check whom it was, but decided that if they came there late at night, it must have been for a reason. She never turned anyone who was looking for comfort, and that included now.

Putting fear for her own personal safety aside, she crept quietly from her hiding place and ventured to the door. She went past the living room where her fiancé was passed out on the sofa, snoring rather loudly. Breathing a small sigh of relief, she slid back the deadbolt, keeping the chain in place for safety's sake, and opened the door a crack to peer out. The sight she beheld was one of which she never dreamed she would see: the first love of her life was leaned up against one of the massive pillars on the portico, blood trailing down the side of his face, from his left shoulder, the right side of his abdomen, and his right thigh, right above the knee cap.

She gasped in astonishment, closing the door briefly to unlock the chain and going over to him out of worry, not really caring what her fiancé would do to her, not to mention to Heero, if he found the two of them together. She draped one of his wet arms around her shoulders, supporting him, as he looked just about ready to fall flat on his face at any given time. He moaned in protest at the movement, letting himself be brought inside the warm house.

Her maid, who had stayed that night to keep her company and to try and protect her mistress from the violent behaviour of her fiancé, came out of her room in the cellar at the sound of the doorbell and was at the top of the stairs leading to basement, seeing the young man her mistress helped inside. He looked an awful mess, with blood and water pooling to the floor at their feet as Relena franticly thought of a place to put him so that someone could help him.

"Miss Relena," the young maid called out softly, fretful that the man of the house was still awake in his drunken stupor and would attack the three of them. "Put him in my room; Mr. Riley doesn't go in there and I'll keep it locked at all times."

Relena contemplated this for a moment, and decided that it would be the safest place in the whole house for him, since Charles Riley didn't like the musky smell of the cellar. "All right Rose," she said, partly dragging the semiconscious young man over to the landing where the maid draped his other arm over her shoulders.

This time, Heero let out a more pained moan than the first time, his injured shoulder causing him great pain as it was moved against his will. He glanced about him slowly, taking his surroundings in a glance. He didn't fail to see the maid and his heart skipped a beat when he beheld Relena. He whispered her name softly, hearing his own voice crack from the cold and the wet. He would bet anything that he had caught a cold and would be bed ridden for a while.

"Let's get him downstairs," Rose urged them, leading the way down the carpeted steps to her room at the foot of the stairs. It was a cozy room, sparsely furnished, but tastefully so. The two women placed the ailing young man on the bed, laying him down on the soft feather mattress and comforter. Rose went to the room next door, where the first aid supplies were kept and came back with several rolls of bandage, disinfectant, a pair of sharp scissors, needle and thread, and as many gauze pads as she could carry.

Relena had sunken into a stupor by the time she had returned, staring at the man she had once loved and whose blood was staining the comforter a deep red. She was crying, but she herself didn't seem to realize it as the tears fell down from her eyes and fell off her chin and into her lap. She was just so depressed, thinking that such terrible wounds could happen to one who was so strong and had survived so much before this.

Rose went to work, bandaging the young man's many wounds swiftly; speaking reassurances when he awoke, though those instances were brief, few and far between, and he winced and groaned the entire time. Rose figured that the wounds had been made by some kind of knife, with the long slash across his abdomen and deep stab in both his shoulder and thigh. She removed his clothes by snipping along the seams and threw the articles in a bag just in case, of what, she wasn't sure.

Lying on the maid's bed in nothing but his boxers and some patches of bandaging, Heero drifted in and out of consciousness, hearing soft reassurances, though they weren't from Relena and then the feel of a blanket being placed over his prone form. His skin was glacial from the cold rain, and he shivered constantly from an internal chill that just wouldn't go away.

He slept for a little while, regaining some strength while the maid watched over him, since Relena left to take care of her fiancé up stairs. She didn't return again that night, not wanting her fiancé to punish her or find out about the injured Heero downstairs. She cleaned up the mess of water and blood on the carpets to the best of her ability, thanking some higher being that they had put in dark carpets at that moment. Afterwards, she lumbered up the stairs to her bedroom, her mind reeling. What if Heero died downstairs? Her mind teased her with unanswerable questions that caused her to worry. "What if his wounds got infected?

She pushed everything out of her mind, changing into her pyjamas for the remainder of the night, and climbed into bed. She had horrible dreams that night, of Charles killing Heero with a kitchen knife, of her fiancé then turning the bloody knife on her, saying that it was her fault that the ex-Gundam pilot had been murdered before her very eyes and that it was also her fault that he didn't love her.

She awoke covered in sweat, unsure if she had screamed aloud or if it was just her imagination. Clambering out of bed, she saw through the curtains that the sun had risen to a cloudless morning, birds chirping happily on her balcony. She drew back the curtains, allowing the sunshine to bathe her room in a golden glow. She threw on some old clothes and raced downstairs to see if her fiancé had awoken yet or not. Sure enough, he was still passed out on the couch, one arm hugging a wine bottle close.

She sighed a quick sigh of relief and headed downstairs, to the maid's room, where she found Rose asleep in her armchair, Heero tossing slightly on her bed.

He froze instantly when she stepped on a creaky floorboard, slowing shifting his gaze over to her while he sat up slowly. He was like a deer caught in the headlights, staring at her with wide blue eyes, mouth slightly agape. She giggled, breaking the silence between them, smiling at him while he gave her a queer look at he giddiness.

"How are you feeling this morning Heero?" she asked, sitting down on the edge of the maid's bed, near his feet.

Over the years that they had been apart, she had grown; she showed it in her smile, the way she walked. The baby fat had melted from her face, leaving behind a gorgeous young woman for who he felt strong feelings, though he wasn't quite sure why he felt them or what they meant.

"Better than the night before," he mumbled, sitting back against the headboard in exhaustion. It was quite sad that such a small movement had depleted all his energies in such a short span of time. He berated himself for being so weak, especially in front of Relena.

She smiled at him warmly. His face was flushed a deep red, probably from fever with the way he was wet and injured the night before. As she continued to look at him, she realised how long it had been since she had gazed upon his face. His face had matured somewhat, his brown hair lengthening by a few inches and was just as or even more unruly than when she had first met him. His eyes were still deep pools of cobalt that could always gaze right threw her. Though, now that she looked closely, she could see traces of emotions, more clearly than the last time she had seen him.

She blushed and looked away as he fixed her with a curious look that just asked what intrigued her so. To try and hide her embarrassment some, she asked, "So, what brings you here?"

He shrugged, "It seemed like the place to go when one is lost," he replied simply, speaking in riddle to try and hide the fact that he had just wanted to see her again.

"And what caused those injuries?" she asked, sympathy evident in her tone.

He glanced down at his bandaged chest, quite aware of the slight blush was creeping over his cheeks as he realised that he was wearing nothing but his underwear in front of the former queen of the world and now a respective representative of the ESUN and engaged... He trailed off in the thought, as he thought about the drunken fool upstairs. As he looked closely at her face, he noticed slight swelling on her cheek, the slight discoloration hidden in her skin that indicated a bruise.

He scowled, her question forgotten for the time being. "Who hit you?" he asked tensely, unaware of the fact that his fist was clenched tightly out of anger.

She looked away in shame, "No one..."

"What do mean 'no one'?" he demanded, his temper getting the better of him and he was just about ready to go over to her and grab her and shake the answer out of her. "Who?"

She blinked back tears, the tone of his voice rough and rude, "If I tell you, you'll probably kill him," she whispered, hiding her face in her hands.

"Of course I will," he snapped impatiently, "The jerk hurt you on purpose!"

"It was unintentional," she said in her fiancé's defence. "He didn't know!"

"How in the Hell can you not know when you're hurting someone?" Heero barked in annoyance—she was protecting him even after what he did to her?

Tears began to fall from her cerulean eyes; "It was an accident..."

He sighed—if it was one thing that he hated it was when she cried. "I'm sorry Relena," he said in a softer tone, or as soft of a tone as his deep voice would allow. "I didn't mean to yell..." He was amazed at himself, as she looked up at him through her tears, unsure if she had heard what he had said in its full context. Back in the war, he wouldn't have tried to avenge her at all; he even tried to kill her on a few occasions. He was amazed with himself with how far he had come since the end of the war.

"That's kind of you Heero, but I can take care of myself," she replied, smiling and wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her shirt.

He frowned—he offered to defend her and she turned him down? What was he supposed to do to help her if she wouldn't let him?

He began to push himself up out of the confines of the bed, trying to get up so that he could do something productive besides sit in bed all day and twiddle his thumbs. He felt the knife wounds all over his body stretch to their limits at the forced movements, feeling his head pound in protest, though he didn't give up—he guessed that he was just stubborn. He felt Relena grip his shoulders firmly and pushed him back down on the bed.

"You're going to tear your wounds Heero," she said urgently. "And then you'd be in even worse shape than you were before!"

He groaned and slowly allowed her to push him back down. He would give up for now, though if anymore bruises should happen to appear by 'accident', he wasn't just going to sit back and allow that to continue. He knew that her fiancé had a violent history and if it were he hitting her like that, he would just have to step in and stop him from hurting his Relena.

Rose awoke slowly to the commotion coming from the two arguing on the bed, slowly looking over to see the injured young man attempt to rise from the bed, though Relena prevented him from hurting himself further. She marvelled at how the two intermingled, seeming to know what to expect from the other; Relena wasn't overly surprised that the young man had tried to rise after not even allowing himself to heal for a full day, but was very forceful in getting him to lie down, and he did so rather reluctantly.

"Oh, Miss Relena, I'm sorry," Rose mumbled when a heavy silence had fallen between the two young people in her room, "I should've been up earlier to make breakfast and clean and such..."

Relena waved off her apology with her hand. "It's alright Rose," she said, "I'm sure Pagan was up getting breakfast ready and I really appreciate that you stayed up to tend to Heero last night; I don't think that I would've gotten any sleep last night if you hadn't."

Rose smiled, "I'll go now and bring the two of you breakfast then, Miss Relena, before your fiancé awakes." The maid headed upstairs to fetch the breakfast tray for their injured guest and their kind mistress, hoping that her, Relena's, fiancé wasn't going to wake up for another couple of hours so that her mistress could have a pleasant talk with that young man without any interruptions.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Charles was slowly awaking to a hangover on the couch, feeling the harshness of the early morning sun on his closed eyelids. Slowly pulling himself into a sitting position on the couch, he swung his legs over the edge of the couch and put his bare feet on the cool floor. The night before was a blur to him, with the maid ushering him into the living room, though he didn't want to be confined to one room in his own house and swung at her. Relena had intercepted the blow before it ever reached the maid and he had hit her hard on her right cheek. He would have to apologise to her for the mistake later, though right now he had to take a shower.

He met the maid at the top of the stairs leading from the cellar in the kitchen, and was tempted to give her a kick out of spite for not being able to hit her the night before when Relena intervened. He wasn't a blackout drunk like most thought he was—though he did have gaps in his memory. He remembered every hit he gave Relena and when he saw the result on her face, attempted to be covered by make-up, he just said that he would find the bastard that hurt her, though he knew that it was he who had done the damage to her beautiful face. He said that he didn't remember the night so that the charges couldn't be pressed on him, and he knew that Relena thought that he loved her when all he wanted was to own her, keep her to himself.

The maid lowered her gaze as the liquor smelling young man headed up the grand stair to his room, probably to shower and change. She would probably tell Relena soon the truth about her fiancé, though she doubted that she would believe her, being the kind soul that she was.

Downstairs, Heero was under Relena's intense scrutiny about his wounds—a couple had torn in his attempt to escape the confines of the bed and roam around on his own. Relena fussed over the large gashes all over his muscular body as she snipped the bandaging around his torso. The delicate stitches had been pulled slightly but were still intact and salvageable.

"You never did tell me where these came from," Relena reminded him sharply as she redressed the wound. "These are knife wounds, aren't they?"

He sighed—he was hoping not to tell her, though it looked like he would have to tell her now, after she helped him in his time of desperate need. "I was attacked by a mob," he said darkly. "They outnumbered me ten to one."

She gasped in horror, covering her mouth. "What did they want?" she asked fearfully.

He knew that he couldn't tell her that her fiancé had cornered him in an alley when he was sneaking back to his apartment in the suburbs from his nightly spying on her. Charles Riley had spotted him escaping from one of the few trees that could allow a clear view into Relena's room via security cameras that had been strategically around her balcony to catch any intruders—like him—who had come to steal his fiancée away from him. Charles and many of his thugs had followed him from Relena's window and into an alley where they had proceeded to corner him and restrain him.

"Who in the Hell gave you permission to look at my girl?" Charles demanded angrily, taking out a rusty switchblade from his inside jacket pocket. "Fucking prick, I'll teach you to spy on my girl without my knowledge..." Advancing slowly towards the ex-Gundam pilot, the proceeded to thrust the tip of the dull blade into the flesh of his shoulder and twist it, waiting for Heero to scream in pain and plead with him, none of which came. Frowning in disappointment at the small grunt that partly escaped his victim's throat, Charles withdrew the knife at a different angle at which it had entered and thrust it deeply into his right thigh, right above the knee, rather deeply too, until it hit bone. Still, not much of a sound was issued from ex-Gundam pilot, using all of his discipline to keep from crying out and giving this sick pig the satisfaction of hearing him cry out in pain.

"Stubborn bastard," Charles muttered, and withdrew the blade, and considered his next spot to hit as a heavy rain started to fall on them all, drenching them all to the bone as Heero grit his teeth from the waves of pain the water caused to issue from his many wounds. The water washed the blood down from his shoulder and leg in force.

Charles snarled and thrust the blade a final time into Heero's abdomen, relishing in the short hiss of pain that escaped his victim's lips. "Don't ever come around my girl ever again or I'll kill you slowly," Charles hissed, yanking the blade free as the thugs released the pilot and he fell to the ground. His blood stained the pavement around him as the mob headed back towards the visible sidewalk, Charles wiping his blade on his victim's clothes as he passed.

As he lay bleeding on the pavement, his life's essence pouring out of the gashes made by that poor excuse of a human being, Heero came to a decision that he would protect her from him at all costs. He had forced his battered body to move, retracing his footsteps by sheer willpower and finally wound up here.

He came back to reality with a sharp bump as Relena waved her hand in front of his face, grabbing his attention yet again. "Earth to Heero," she called. "Are you in there?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking..." he muttered, taking her hand in his as though it were second nature for him to do so. Her hands were soft, with no calluses from hard work besides paperwork and writing a few speeches to encourage the world from time to time. His, on the other hand, were rough from the manual labour he did with heavy machinery during the day and the trees he climbed every night to catch a glimpse of her threw her bedroom window.

She blushed when he unexpectedly took her hand in a firm by gentle grip, the grip of a lover. She watched as he unconsciously ran a callused thumb over her knuckles, thinking to himself. He stared into her eyes, which made her blush even more, though she wasn't quite sure why. He had always had this effect on her, making her feel short of breath and her heart hammer away in her chest for no apparent reason. He shouldn't have this effect by now, that should've been gone once Charles had proposed to her, but she just couldn't feel that way with him, because only Heero would hold her heart as tenderly as he did now. That's when it came to her, she knew right then and there that Heero was the only man that she could truly love, the first and real love that she had known in her life and she wanted to cherish it while she had the chance, before he ran away and hid on her again.

As he watched her, she seemed to change her attitude towards him completely, as the blush dissipated in her cheeks, her once rigid posture relaxing, as she grew comfortable with his thumb still stroking knuckles gently. He felt one recognizable emotion swirl to the surface in his uncertain heart and felt his mind ease, as love for this young woman whose hand he still held flooded threw him, calming all doubt in his mind, making the threat of the over-possessive man upstairs seem like a bad dream that was fleeting in the mind.

She moved closer to him, laying her head on his chest as he settled himself under her to make her comfortable. He felt her almost melt into his arms, relaxing and feeling that they were perfect for each other, and that Charles no longer existed.

They dozed down in the basement all day, Rose and Pagan, who had come down with their breakfast saw the young couple dozing lightly in the bed, each with a calm expression on their face, and Pagan smiled to himself and led the young maid from the room. He whispered for her to be quiet as he explained about the rumours flying around about Miss Relena and a Gundam pilot being in love and that the young man that had shown up on their doorstep was in fact the elusive 01 pilot who Relena was deeply in love with since she was fifteen. Rose gasped in astonishment, staring at the peaceful look on the young man's face while he slept, unable to believe that he had once been the most feared and hated individual on the Earth and colonies, the man who had ended the war twice.

Upstairs, Charles had finished freshening up and was searching for Relena, who was, unknown to him, asleep against another man's chest downstairs. He searched everywhere in her room, all the closets that she usually hid in when he was drunk and rampant so that she wouldn't be hit, though he wouldn't touch her without a good reason anyway. He stumbled from one room to another, calling her name frantically, searching for her. Pagan came upstairs to see what he was shouting about and explained the she had gone out for a morning stroll to get away for a bit and would be back soon enough. Cursing his luck, Charles went downstairs to find himself something to eat, when he met Rose coming up from the basement with a tray laden with the breakfast that she had brought down earlier for the sleeping couple untouched. Glaring at the maid, thinking that she had brought to down for herself, he knocked the tray out of her hands and to the floor, shouting at her angrily.

"What the Hell were you doing sneaking food when nobody's looking?" he growled out, leering down at her threateningly. "And where in the Hell is Relena, you whore."

Keeping her eyes downcast to give the effect the he was overpowering her, Rose spoke to the carpet, noticing that there were still visible patches of blood on the dark blue carpet. "Miss Relena went out for a walk, Mr. Riley," she said, moving to pick up the spilt food, though she was grabbed around the throat by his strong hand.

"If I find out that you're lying to me, you scum, I'll make sure that you can never work ever again." He released her and she stumbled back, shocked that he had gone so far as to threaten her.

Pagan stood at the top of the stair, and watched the whole proceeding, shaking his head in disgust at the young man's forceful actions. Going to the struggling maid's side, he helped her pick up the fallen tray and food and bring it back in the kitchen while Charles went into the living room to watch some T.V. and wait until his headache from drinking so much the night before had passed.

There was a sudden knock on the door that demanded his attention just as Charles was about to enter the living room, so he made a short detour to the front door, which he promptly unlocked. One of his buddies from the night before, known as the chicken shit of the group stood shaking on the front step, mumbling to himself.

"What in the Hell are you doing here?" Charles hissed, closing the door forcefully behind him as he went to confer with the man out of the prying eyesight of the two servants.

"He's gone!" the mouse-for-a-man squeaked.

"Who's gone?"

"That guy that you tried to kill last night!" he squeaked. "Holdman said that he saw him coming back here but lost sight of him once he came through the gates."

Charles cursed his luck. "I bet you that whore of a maid took him in," he grumbled. "She's always giving strangers charity...." And that's when it hit him; she wasn't sneaking food for herself, but for that spy who was watching his Relena from a tree the night before. Cursing again, he walked back inside, slamming the door in the poor mouse-for-a-man's face.

Racing to the top of the stairs to the cellar, he proceeded to look over the scene, looking for blood or wet patches on the carpet, though he couldn't find any. Not ready to give up on any evidence that may have been left behind, he combed the area, searching for any clues as to where his fiancée could've gotten. After searching the whole downstairs, he decided that the only places left were the cellar and the grounds, but he immediately ruled out the grounds for the simple fact that there was no shelter out there and there was the probability of that spy he had cut up being around. He quickly descended the basement steps, going slowly and quietly so as not to alert anyone to his presence. Unfortunately for him, he happened to step on a creaky step just before reaching the bottom of the stair.

Heero was sleeping peacefully downstairs, Relena resting on his chest, and his arms wrapped around her waist. Relena shifted to the side slightly, putting pressure on his injured abdomen, and causing a slight twinge of pain. Opening his eyes to see where to shift Relena so they could both be comfortable, but as he was shifting, the creak of a step alerted him to the approach of someone down the cellar steps. Ceasing all movement, he listened for some indication of who it may be. A low curse told him immediately that it was neither the maid, nor Relena's assistant Pagan who had come to see them, but rather her fiancé who must've woken up from his liquor induced sleep. Nudging Relena gently but insistently, he let her wake up at he heard someone begin to pick the locked door that separated them from the possessive fiancé.

"Wake up Relena," he whispered urgently, "You have to hide."

She awoke slowly and peered into Heero's anxious eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked sitting up and rubbing her eyes blearily.

"That prick you call your fiancé's come to claim you back," he said and she stood up, as did he with the help of the bedpost. "Hide in there," he pointed to a small bathroom off to the side. "I'll deal with that guy."

She shook her head. "He'll kill you Heero if he finds you here," she said, pulling him back with her by the hand. "Let me deal with him."

"He already has tried to kill me," he confessed softly. "I can handle it, don't worry."

She gasped in horror as a click from the door sounded. In a last ditch attempt to hide her from view, he shoved her into the small bathroom and closed the door behind her, locking the little latch into place. She landed unceremoniously on the cold floor, stilling her breathing as Charles began a shouting match with Heero on the other side of the door. She moved closer so that she wouldn't have to strain her hearing to hear them.

"What in the Hell did you do with my women?" Charles demanded, striding up to the injured ex-Gundam pilot to try and evoke fear in him, but didn't succeed in the least, the young man fearless to say the least.

"I didn't do anything to her that would harm her in any way, unlike you," Heero replied calmly, standing his ground in front of the bathroom door.

Charles' face contorted with rage at this vagrant's words. "What are you doing in my house?"

"Last time I checked, it was Relena's house, not yours," Heero retorted smartly. "And who else would've hit her besides you if you don't even allow for other men to even look at her?"

Growling menacingly, Charles came forward, swinging his right fist in an attempt to nail Heero with a right hook to show him who was boss, but the reflexes of the war veteran were by far superior to that of the business man, and Heero moved in closer to Charles' body to avoid the swing, stopping the round-house slug by trapping his opponent's arm with his own forearms. Charles growled yet again, sounding more and more feral each time he did it, and pulled back, trying to throw Heero off balance, but Heero was ready and just let him go and he flew back into the wall. Charles slumped back against the wall, stunned by the battered man's reaction speed to being attacked.

"For Relena's sake, I swore a year ago that I would never kill again," Heero said, speaking mostly to himself, "and I'm not about to break that oath to her for your sake."

Charles cursed to himself quietly, and while he straightened, pulled the rusty blade from his jeans pocket, where he had placed it in case he had a need for it again, and as he spun, he aimed for the ex-pilot's exposed abdomen for a second time, but his second strike to the vital area was thwarted by Heero's blocking hand, stepping to the side and swiping the blade away from him and in one quick manure had turned the blade point against his attacker's jugular in a couple of well placed twists.

"I told you," Heero said again, "You don't want to mess with me."

Charles was stunned. What was he going to do now? He was virtually all out of ideas, and now that he had been cornered with his own knife, he also didn't have a weapon.

"I suggest that you don't ever touch Relena ever again in a way that would cause her harm or discomfort," he continued, voice low and full of threatening promises, "because if you do, I'll just have to do something more drastic than give you a good scare."

Wrenching the blade from the businessman's slack hand, Heero closed the switchblade and stood towering over the man on his knees on the floor.

Charles stared at the man who had earned his love's heart, crushing any hope there might have been that they would've gotten together and been happy. He remembered the first night that they had spent together in this house; he had been on his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night when he heard Relena sleep talking rather loudly in her room. She was pleading with a man, whose name she kept murmuring over and over again. Then she screamed out, "Heero Yuy, how could you leave?" loud enough for him to hear her clearly. It was clear to him that he wasn't the first person in his fiancée's heart, but this Heero Yuy person seemed to be the one that she loved the most, and since then he heard her more than once murmuring his name in her sleep.

This must be Heero Yuy, from the way that he had been well cared for. Since the first time he had heard his name, Charles had been bent on finding out who this Heero Yuy was, and went searching through old reports from Oz and the White Fang, and found that Heero Yuy was a code name given to the pilot of Gundam 01, and he would be about Relena's age now, relatively tall and of Japanese origin. The young man who stood before him fit that description fully, and was well built, indicating that he could've been a Gundam pilot, since, according to the Oz report, you needed considerable strength and skill to pilot a Gundam. This young man had enough of both.

Placing a cool mask over his frightened features, Charles addressed the Japanese man calmly. "You really care for Relena, don't you Heero Yuy?" he asked slyly.

Heero's eyes narrowed considerably, glaring fiercely at the foolish man. Since when did this man know what his name was?

Relena listened through the door, and gasped quietly when Charles stated Heero's name; how did he know without her telling him? She was sure that Lady Une had erased all the data containing the names and identities of all the Gundam pilots years ago, so how did he find out? She peeked out through a crack in the door, waiting to see the outcome of this argument.

"That's not my name," Heero said quietly, "I know for a fact that that man's dead and has been for years."

Charles smirked to himself. "If Heero Yuy isn't your name, then why are you sweating and shaking so much?" the smooth businessman retorted, seeing the other man's fists clench at his sides.

"Of what business is it to you what my name is?" Heero asked softly.

"You're that murderous Gundam pilot aren't you?" he asked, smirking when Heero's nails bit through the skin on his palms, making blood from the wounds drip to the floor. "Judging by what the Oz reports told me, you fit the description perfectly."

Heero tried to keep his temper with the arrogant jerk in check, but his hands shook violently when he said, "I haven't the faintest idea as to what you're talking about."

"I think that you do," Charles said, loving the fact that he was making the man squirm. While the former Gundam pilot was battling internal demons, the businessman launched at him, tackling him to the ground. The two of them toppled over backwards into the maid's desk, where Heero's head was bashed against the wood rather harshly. Somewhere, above his splitting headache, Heero could hear Relena cry out.

Charles gained the upper hand as the mighty Gundam pilot saw stars for a moment and landed a solid punch to the side of Heero's face, sending it back into the wooden desk yet again.

Relena couldn't take seeing a man that she thought loved her beat on the man who had stolen her heart in one glance and had left no room for her to steal it back. She rushed to his side just as her fiancé pulled out the knife yet again, preparing to put an end to the miserable person who had dared to steal away his Relena. She stepped between the two, shielding Heero from view. Now it was her battleground, it was her turn to protect him as he had done for her so many times before.

"Stop it Charles!" she cried, stepping between the two combatants.

"Why are you protecting him?!" Charles screeched. "He's a Gundam pilot, the filth of the universe!"

"I love him!" she cried, and then gasped at the sudden realization; she had always loved him, and always would. He would never hurt her, even if he were drunk. He would always be gentle, kind and caring. He would always protect her. "He's ten times the man you could ever be!" Tears were falling down her cheeks, for a reason unknown to her.

Charles was stunned by her announcement. Slowly, the shock wore off and he went into a frenzy, unable to accept that he couldn't get his way. No one had ever denied him what he wanted in his life, and this woman wouldn't be the first to do so. Retrieving the fallen switchblade that had fallen from Heero's slack hand when they had scuffled earlier, he flicked it open effortlessly and lunged at the closest target, Relena. He placed the rusty blade near her throat, daring Heero to make a move.

Heero had had another idea. He grabbed the gun that he kept stashed in his pants, reaching into the pocket that had had the material liner removed and gripped the pistol and drew it forth, clicking off the safety and taking aim all in one smooth motion. He had been training ever since the end of the war to keep his skills sharp just in case something like this were to happen to Relena.

"Just let her go Charles," he said, cocking the gun. "You really don't want to harm her; that just wouldn't be in your best interest."

Charles had lost his mind; there was a gleam in his eyes that told Heero that he was beyond reasoning. He pressed the rusty point to Relena's jugular, waiting for the precise moment that he would deal the mortally wounding blow to the vein. Relena was crying in earnest now, tears trailing down her cheeks as she became fearful for her own safety. Why couldn't she see it sooner? Charles could never be like Heero; he enjoyed getting drunk and then beating on her, he always had. She struggled weakly, but now it was Heero's turn to save her, since she had done a botched job at protecting him in the first place.

"Look Charles, killing her won't get you anywhere," Heero said, keeping his aim trained on his head as Charles stared at him from over Relena's shoulder. "If you kill her, your life is over, you'll be locked away for ever and her soul will haunt you for ever or I'll kill you here and now and you'll be doomed to roam this plane of existence for ever." He had immersed himself in religious studies to try and atone for his sins, and he thought that this was a go time to use what he had learned about the afterlife.

"I don't care Yuy," the insane businessman spat. "She can rot for all I care." There was a twitch of his hand, which was all Heero needed. Lowering his aim at the last possible second, Heero fired, the bullet tore through Charles' forehead. Stunned, the knife tumbled from his slack hand, and he slowly sank to the floor as Relena ran from her dead fiancé, crying tears of shock and relief.

"You didn't have to kill him Heero," she whispered. "He wouldn't have killed me." She buried her face in his shoulder, crying.

Heero wrapped his arms around her. "He would have done so just so that he could claim that you were always his and no one else's," he said, stroking her hair to calm her down.

"But Heero, I was never his to begin with," she said, as the door burst open and Rose and Pagan entered to the devastating sight of Charles' brains and blood gushing to the wooden floor at the foot of the bed and Heero and Relena embracing on the floor.

They thought that it was better that they never brought this out in public and kept to themselves the circumstances around Charles' death, telling the media that a Preventer killed the man when he physically abused Relena after a bout of drinking. Heero, it was reported, would become her new bodyguard for life on more than one level.

* * *

Thank you so much for reading!  I'm going to update **_Somewhere I Belong_** soon, just as soon as I find some time to myself, senior year of school you know... I could really use some encouragement though. 


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